Hearthstone Mansfield vs regency 3500 cat

Davek134 said:

Have old earth stove

Looking for advice. I want to replace my old stove. Getting 4 hr burn times . Looking for stove to keep burning all day while at work and threw night. 2000 sq ft house

Local sales is pushing hearthstone Mansfield $3300 non cat soap stone

I was online looking at regency 3500 cat $3k

Has to be front loading

Some people are highly positive on the cat s and some on non cats.

I would like this purchase to last long time Not really caring about addition cost of maintainence

What are your recommendations ? Benefits for booth

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Go with a blaze king princess.

I own a Hearthstone Mansfield and I am very happy with my stove. I have a home similarly sized to yours (approximately 1,800 square feet) and my stove is installed in a den in the corner of the room on the end of the house. This stove has no problem throwing heat and easily heats the entire house.

Further more, unlike one would most likely conclude, there is NOT an overbearing heat/temperature level in the room where the stove is located. It is very hard to explain if you have never experienced heat from a soapstone stove, but the heat is much more "gentle" and not as "extreme" or overbearing as steel or cast iron. The soapstone also radiates stored heat long after the fire dies down; with dry wood, I am continuously able to achieve 10 hours between reloads.

I have no experience running a Cat stove and I am unable to make any assumptions or comments reference to this. However, I have run two non-cat stoves and found them very simple and user friendly (even the wife can do it without too much oversight!).

Good luck in your decision; just my $0.02.

Davek134 said:

Reasoning ?

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Blaze Kings give good heating with much longer burn times than the Mansfield.

The Regency is a hybrid, does both secondary and cat burn. I think it's a smaller version of their F5100. This type of stove interests me, since I'm a cat guy. I don't recall seeing reports on the F3500 yet but I know several folks on here burn the 5100. Maybe use the excellent search function here to find hands-on reports. If you want to drink the BK Kool-Aid, there are plenty of enablers here.

You also have to take into consideration how well your house is buttoned up and insulated etc. We purchased a Mansfield this year and really like it compared to our last stove. We have a log cabin and the main floor is 1250 sf and the upstairs the same. Our stove is in the center of the house on the main floor. Our problem is that our windows are drafty. When it gets truly cold out, like teens and below, the stove only throws out "useable" heat for a couple hours at best. Its not the stoves fault, its ours due to the windows but its something to consider. The area the stove is in is wide open. On the cold days, you can be sitting across the room and its not warm by any stretch of the imagination. Burn times are relative I think. People that throw out 10 hours of burn time must be including when the stovetop temps get down to 250-300? In our house, thats not useable heat unless you are standing next to the stove.

What size chimney do you have now on your old stove? If its an 8 inch, BK does make a King model that is 4+ CF

Davek134 said:

My concern with blaze king is small fire box 2.85

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The usable fire box size is about 2.8 on the Mansfield. Not sure on the princess but there close enough. And the bk is far more efficient. If you can stomach the looks.

I'm on my 5th trouble free season with the Mansfield. Its a good stove. There are better ones out there imo. But it heata this drafty house just fine.

Woody Stover said:

The Regency is a hybrid, does both secondary and cat burn. I think it's a smaller version of their F5100. This type of stove interests me, since I'm a cat guy. I don't recall seeing reports on the F3500 yet but I know several folks on here burn the 5100. Maybe use the excellent search function here to find hands-on reports. If you want to drink the BK Kool-Aid, there are plenty of enablers here.

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Davek134 said:

My concern with blaze king is small fire box 2.85

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Don't get to hung up on the fire box size. Blaze kings can achieve an unbelievably long burn. Just ask anybody who Doesn't own one

bholler said:

Yes even with a small box you can get long burns but at a low heat output. It all depends how much heat you need.

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The op put an emphasise on burn times. I don't think he could beat a cat stove in that respect. Very respectable burn times while cranking out serious heat also. It would be up to the op to decide if a Princess or whatever else was a fit for his home but I don't think he should dismiss it because of the firebox size. It's not a "small" firebox by any means and I think the op will be surprised at the burn times that a cat stove of that size can offer.

bholler said:

Well he wants a stove that will burn all day while he is at work. Most larger stoves will do that. But if you will notice i suggested 2 cat stoves that would match his chimney size. I am not against cat stoves but as the firebox size goes down yes you can still get long burns but the heat output of those burns is going to be reduced. There is still only a certain amount of available heat in that wood a cat does not change that.

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Come on man, you know better. It's not about trying to increase the amount of available heat in wood. It's about how much of that available heat you can keep in your home. A cat helps a great deal with that.

Saying that a cat doesn't change the amount of available heat in a load of wood is like standing beside a 1977 Trans-Am and saying a modern car doesn't change the amount of energy in a gallon of gas.

Davek134 said:

I really like look hearth stone

Blaze king look ok I guess.

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Get what you want. Your the one who has to use & look at it everyday.